Drunken Dairy: 6 Cheeses Under the Influence of Alcohol
Cheese has many dance partners in the beverage category, and much enthusiastic prose has been spent on particular marriages between cheese and wine, cheese and beer, and even cheese and spirits. An exquisite cheese and beverage pairing can magnify or mirror certain flavors or even textures within both the cheeses and their partnered beverages. A light and zesty Sancerre belongs with a similarly styled chèvre as much as a smoky single malt Scotch can be both mellowed and enriched by a generous triple cream brie.
But some iconic cheeses don’t even wait until maturity to find their bibulous partners. There are cheeses whose textures are firm or hard, and then there are hard cheeses. Alcohol in many forms can help to develop the very personality of a cheese itself when it is applied during the cheesemaking process, anywhere from acidification to affinage, though most frequently as an element for creating depth in washed rind cheeses. In turn, those very beverages become more than just pairings for the cheeses they influence, they become soulmates whose flavors are echoed from the inside out.
Here we showcase 6 cheeses that are under the influence of alcohol, with a closer look at how various wines, beers, and spirits contribute to each of their characters.
Rogue River Blue
Rogue Creamery of Bend, OR, took top prize in the 2019 World Cheese Awards in Bergamot, Italy for its Rogue River Blue. A traditional blue vein cheese goes from classic to celebrated during the aging process, whereby the cheese is wrapped in Syrah leaves from a local vineyard and washed with a pear brandy. Much more than just a pairing, this literal pearing of the creamy blue serves to amplify the sweeter, fruity notes in the cheese itself, mellowing out the sharper tones and contributing to its exceptionally balanced character.
Margot
When one thinks of the probable use of alcohol in an Italian cheesemaking process, the first thought goes to wine. Maybe grappa. In any case, grapes, with clear visions of the Tuscan countryside positively strangled with vines. But Piedmontese cheesemaker Caseificio Rosso flips the script with Margot, a soft cheese tempered by an artisanal beer. Added to the cow’s milk base, and also applied during aging as a wash, Margot blonde ale from brewer Enrico Terzo gives not only its name to the sister cheese, but also a distinct hoppiness with a pleasantly bitter note against the natural sweetness.
Époisses de Bourgogne
One of France’s most iconic cheeses, époisses takes on its distinctly rowdy character from a washing or smearing of Marc de Bourgogne, a pomace brandy, which is to Burgundy as grappa is to Italy. Marc, or pomace, consists of the grape skins, stems, and seeds left over from the juice extraction in the winemaking process. Eau de vie made from this byproduct tends to have a certain firewater roughness, which may explain the aggressiveness it imparts to its companion cheese’s flavor. Époisses's signature is the resulting sticky, orange rind that basically melts away to reveal that which walks the line between cheese and custard, assaulting the senses with bacon and umami and triggering the salivation reflex for lovers of the most pungent curds.
Cabra al Vino
Literally translated as “goat with wine,” or commonly known as Drunken Goat, the crimson rind leaves no question as to what sort of barrel the pesky goat cheese has got itself into. A D.O.P. (denominación de origen protegida) cheese from Murcia on Spain’s Mediterranean coast, a number of producers can make it, but the consistency of each wheel is guaranteed by the regulating body. This semi-firm pasteurized goat cheese is “cured” for 48 to 72 hours in Doble Pasta wine, an especially bold, tannic, high-alcohol red very capable of inebriating humans, goats, and cheeses alike. The result of this wine cure is a somewhat firm and salty cheese with the familiar goat’s milk tang, rounded by a delicately grapey perfume.
Pour Me A Slice
File Pour Me A Slice under “aged and infused.” This classic cheddar from Utah’s Beehive Cheese was born of a partnership with bourbon distiller Basil Hayden’s to remove one link from the cheese-and-spirit-pairing chain. With a high rye content on the other half of the corn-based mash bill, Basil Hayden’s is on the spicier end of bourbon, but still brings those rich caramel notes of barrel-aged spirits. The result, in consort with a classic cheddar, is at once familiar and exciting, as the whiskey emphasizes both the sharp and sweet notes that develop as cheddar ages. A natural selection for pairing with more Basil Hayden’s, it’s also an excellent beer cheese, much in the way one might sip a neat whiskey along with a favorite brew.
Murray’s CaveMaster Reserve Project X
Murray’s CaveMaster Reserve program is a partnership between stalwart NYC cheese retailer Murray’s and various creameries from around the world. Unfinished wheels arrive at Murray’s Long Island City cheese cave facility, where Murray’s cavemasters add the finishing touches, many born from a “what if?” laboratory experimentation mindset. Several of the CaveMaster series cheeses get the boozy bath treatment, here we highlight Project X: born as a mellow, raw cow’s milk, Alpine-style tomme at Spring Brook Farm in Vermont, the wheel is subjected to both fennel pollen and a Finger Lakes gewurztraminer wash. As a wine, gewurztraminer is known for its floral, honeyed character, and along with the fennel pollen, all of these elements become nuances in the cheese’s earthy bouquet.